“Everglades restoration is the precondition for resilience here in South Florida,” the Everglades Foundations Ecosystem and Resilience Scientist Dr. It will also work against the threat of saltwater intrusion by recharging the Biscayne aquifer, preventing rising seawater from seeping into the water table underneath Miami-Dade. Acting as the primary freshwater source for 9 million people, the increase in water sent south will allow for continued freshwater access for the growing Southeast coast population. The Everglades also has major ecosystem benefits for the Miami-Dade area. “This is a race to finish this project, to get clean water flowing south, get algae bloom out of our estuaries and our economy to be resilient,” Co-founder of Captains for Clean Water Daniel Andrews said. The EAA initiative has won the support of many coastal stakeholder groups due to its potential to reduce these harmful algae-prone water flows to the east and west coast though the by 55%Ĭaptains for Clean Water, an organization built by Southwest Florida fishermen, has been involved with the EAA since the passing of Senate Bill 10 in 2017 that allocated state funding towards the reservoir. This 17 month algal bloom cost Florida’s Gulf Coast Counties over one billion dollars in lost profits, approximately half from the tourism industry. Louis river with a notably persistent bloom from 2017 to 2019 in Florida’s Gulf Coast. These blooms have grown in severity near the Caloosahatchee and St. This polluted water will be filtered through miles of wetlands before reaching the Everglades, with the hopes of purifying it of high quantities of phosphorus, the nutrient partially responsible for algal blooms and fish kills. The Everglades Foundation works to restore and protect the Florida Everglades. Steve Davis, chief science officer of The Everglades Foundation, speaks about peat soil during a media tour Friday, Feb 24. “It allows us a volume of water that we can draw from so that we can mirror, or mimic, that natural recession of water across the landscape,” Davis said. The reservoir will hold up to 78 billion gallons of water, which when released south will nourish these dehydrated landscapes. This natural flow of water was disrupted in the 1940’s to dry up land for agriculture and development in South Florida, resulting in the drainage of 50% of the Everglades. Steve Davis calls its “heart,” allowing water to flow from Lake Okeechobee in the north to the Florida Bay and Everglades. The EAA will restore the connection between the river of grass and what Chief Scientist for the Everglades Foundation Dr. “Two decades of planning, two decades of planning, pushing and lifting and lobbying all to secure the funding needed to save and restore this amazing habitat,” Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said during the EAA groundbreaking ceremony on Feb. ![]() ![]() Set for completion in 2030 and full implementation a few years later, the EAA will mark the conclusion of a thirty year endeavor to restore Florida’s natural water flow. A $4 billion endeavor, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) reservoir will encompass a 10,500 acre reservoir and 6,500 acres of wetlands, otherwise known as the Stormwater Treatment Area (STA). The latest addition to the restoration effort is the most prominent to date. Since the passing of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) in 2000, the Everglades has become the largest ecological restoration effort in the world, receiving several billion-dollar infusions in pursuit of preserving the water quality and environmental health of the South Florida basin. It is a calm day in the Everglades for the hundreds of species who know nothing of the billions spent to keep them there in a perfectly balanced water concentration and level. A Great Blue Heron flies along the water of the Everglades on Friday, Feb 24.
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